Madoff and Stanford - where did all the money go?

[RyDogg66]

So I get what these creeps did, but what did they do with the money?

[endaround]

Madoff paid it out to those who withdrew funds. He took his cut of course. Basically Madoff did what Steve and Barry's did, took big upfront sums to pay off people withdrawing money while doing nothing else. It's a basic Ponzi scheme.

 

Sanford, its still unclear if it was always Ponzi like Madoff or if there are some bad investments that he tried to cover up.

[davego]

I suppose it is like a 'regular' person taking $ off one credit card to make payment on another. The inital debt and the fees get you in the end. Crazy this can happen on such a large scale an for such a long period of time.